Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) will visit Turkey on Wednesday, the Turkish Presidency announced on Tuesday.
The visit will be the first in a decade as the countries have battled for regional influence and backed opposing sides in conflicts, but Ankara has sought to reduce tensions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its Arab allies in recent months.
"Steps that can be taken to improve cooperation will be discussed," the Turkish Presidency said.
Earlier this year, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a phone call with MBZ in which the two discussed relations between Turkey and the Gulf state.
The two discussed bilateral relations and regional issues, according to a statement from the Turkish Presidency that did not specify when the conversation took place.
The UAE’s state-run news agency said the leaders “reviewed the prospects of reinforcing the relations between the two nations in a way that serves their common interests and their two peoples.”
Erdoğan previously said that the countries, which have been at odds in several issues, have made progress in bilateral relations in recent months.
"Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's phone call with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed was very positive and friendly," Abhu Dhabi palace advisor Anwar Gargash said on Twitter.
He said the contact between the two leaders was meant to open "a new phase" in relations as "the UAE seeks to build bridges, maximize commonalities and work together with friends and brothers to ensure future decades of regional stability and prosperity for all peoples and countries of the region."
The call came two weeks after Erdoğan hosted a top UAE security official and discussed investment in Turkey.
UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s trip was the highest-level public visit by an Emirati official to Turkey in years.
The two countries, which backed opposing sides in the conflict in Libya, had been bitter rivals for regional influence. Turkey last year accused the UAE of bringing chaos to the Middle East through its interventions in Libya and Yemen, while the UAE and several other countries criticized Turkey's military actions. Relations between Turkey and the UAE hit an all-time low when Erdoğan said that Ankara could suspend diplomatic ties with the Abu Dhabi administration after the UAE-Israel deal.
Turkish officials have said the UAE supports terrorist organizations that target Turkey, using the groups as convenient political and military tools abroad.
The UAE's aggressive foreign policy led it to be a part of a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that launched a devastating air campaign to roll back Houthi territorial gains in 2015, further escalating the crisis in the war-torn country. In Libya, Abu Dhabi backed putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar and tried to oust the legitimate United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA). In Syria, it supported the Bashar Assad regime in its offensive against democracy and civil rights.
And in 2017, Abu Dhabi was at the forefront of a regional embargo on Qatar, which the UAE and Saudi Arabia imposed after accusing Doha of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and being too close to Iran. In January, Abu Dhabi followed Saudi Arabia’s lead in lifting the regional embargo on Qatar.
